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Mike Hansen wanted to write a children’s book about bullying, among other things. All he had to do was look at his feet, where Earl, his faithful springer spaniel, was resting.

Despite Earl’s sweet nature toward kids, adults and other canines, he was attacked once by another dog. Since then, rather than embrace Earl’s nature, other dogs turn on him. They bully him.

Hansen didn’t intend to write about Earl. But when he’s asked about it, he agrees that he must have based Rocky, the book’s main character, on Earl. Rocky’s white and black, just like Earl, and he’s probably a springer spaniel, too. There’s only one significant difference: Rocky is the bully.

Hansen of Greeley wrote the story in his head during his long bike rides (he completed his first century ride a few weeks ago).

He works at United Airlines as a ticket taker and crewman. He’s not a writer. But the story was there, and he wanted to get it out somehow. His two children were grown and out of the house, so he had the time for it. So he scratched it out, and after editing it “about 40 times,” publishers told him the book was too long. So he decided to publish it himself.

“There’s the shipping department,” Hansen said, pointing to a desk in his living room.

In two months, he hired an illustrator, came up with a web site and found a printer. He worked with the illustrator over Skype. By Thanksgiving, he had printed and sold about 1,000 copies. The book, “Rocky at the Farm,” cost him about $8,000. He’s probably made about half of it back.

“It’s my hobby,” Hansen said. “It’s not really something I did to make money.”

There are other rewards. One kid sent him a half-page “book” of her own, and another sent a thank-you card. When a third read his first book, his mother wrote Hansen a letter that said the kid told her he needed to be nicer to his brother.

Rocky may be the bully, but there are reasons for it. Rocky was abandoned and thought he needed to be tough to survive. Hansen was moved around a lot as a child and remembers hating being the new kid all the time. Those feelings came out in Rocky’s character. Once Leo, an orange cat, befriends Rocky, he comes around and joins a soccer team.

Leo’s inspiration came from Hansen’s orange cat, who is a bit of a sourpuss toward strangers, but the Hansens like him.

“He doesn’t really have a name,” Hansen said. “Sometimes we call him ‘Waldo,’ because we can’t find him and we’ll say, ‘Where’s Waldo?’”

Hansen enjoyed writing the book, and on a hike up Twin Sisters in Rocky Mountain National Park, he thought of a sequel, “Rocky’s School Play.” That book just came out.

Hansen has a deal now where he can print either book one at a time, on demand. He learned a lot from the first, so the second didn’t cost him nearly as much.

Hansen has an idea for a stuffed animal line of the characters in the book, and he wants to help other authors market their books, but the idea, again, isn’t to get rich.

Hansen hopes to teach some life lessons to kids without preaching.

In the second book, Rocky gets a big head after he does well in the school play before he finds a little humility. That may have been based on Earl, too, a dog who just seems happy with a pat on the head and the chance to lay by Hansen’s feet while his owner works on another story inspired by him.

Staff writer Dan England covers the outdoors, entertainment and general assignment stories for The Tribune. His column runs on Tuesday. If you have an idea for a column, call (970) 392-4418 or e-mail dengland@greeleytribune.com. Follow him on Twitter @ DanEngland.